Wiswell shooting for state hockey title at St. Thomas

Thursday

Feb 6, 2014 at 2:00 AMFeb 6, 2014 at 7:00 AM

DOVER — For almost as long as Glenn Wiswell has been collecting points for the St. Thomas Aquinas hockey team, outsiders have been telling him why he shouldn't be collecting points for the St. Thomas Aquinas hockey team.

DOVER — For almost as long as Glenn Wiswell has been collecting points for the St. Thomas Aquinas hockey team, outsiders have been telling him why he shouldn't be collecting points for the St. Thomas Aquinas hockey team.

The Saints (9-2-1) are breathing down the neck of first-place Salem in Division I, making a strong case that last year's team that lost a heartbreaker in the state semifinals may not be the best recent edition we've seen.

Wiswell, a Berwick, Maine, resident who's been on the team since his freshman year, is leading the way with 14 goals and 26 points, both team highs. Last month he became he fourth member of the program's 100-point club. With linemates Niall Foster and Ty Turgeon, he's part of one of the best lines in New Hampshire.

So why isn't everybody happy?

Because more and more these days, the top players who think they're good enough to play Division I college hockey — and Wiswell thinks, one day, he'll be good enough — aren't doing the full hitch with their high school teams, as prep school and junior teams beckon.

"Sophomore year was the big year. Everyone said I should get out of St. Thomas and go somewhere else for my development," said Wiswell.

He heard the arguments. Considered a few, too.

"I thought about it," he said. "I looked around. But prep schools never appealed to me. I like the situation I'm in here. I like the players and I like the coach. It was always an ideal situation, in my mind."

He also had his family in his corner.

"They always told me to do what I wanted to do, what's going to make me happiest," he said. "They thought prep school was a good thing, but if I wasn't going to be happy then there was no reason to. They've always supported me and had my back."

"It's good to see that he wanted to stay," said St. Thomas coach Andrew Leach. "I compare him to (senior Erik) Coburn at Londonderry. Some kids like it. They want that school feeling. They get to see their teammates every day and they get to see the kids they go to school with at the games."

St. Thomas was on Wiswell's radar since elementary school. He attended St. Mary's Academy in Dover for junior high, all with an eye on playing hockey for STA one day.

He was an impact freshman and skated on a second line as a sophomore, when the senior-leaden Saints went a disappointing 9-8-1 and lost in the prelims. He topped the 30-point mark and earned All-Division-I second-team honors as a junior, seeing all kinds of ice time as STA reached the semifinals, losing to eventual champion Manchester Memorial.

"From his sophomore year to junior year he made real big strides," said Leach. "He grew quite a bit, put on some pounds."

Wiswell is balancing his high school schedule with a part-time role with the based Islanders Hockey Club, one of the region's top junior programs, skating with their Under-18 team A couple times a week he'll have back-to-back practices, getting home from his Islanders practice at midnight and getting up at 4 a.m. to practice with the Saints before school.

"You get used to it," he said.

"I'm OK with that with a guy like Glenn, if it's their goal to play at the highest level," said Leach, who played in the USHL — the highest level of American junior hockey — and at the University of New Hampshire, "as long as he stays healthy and doesn't get too burnt out."

The Saints have six games left in the regular season, starting Saturday at Memorial, and are just about locked into a top-four finish. It's been 12 years since the program reached a state final and, with a win against first-place Salem and tight losses to two other top contenders (Londonderry and Trinity), there's no reason to think they can't get there.

Wiswell has drawn some inquiries from a pair of Hockey East programs, Maine and Merrimack. Next year he'll probably be a full-time junior player, aiming to make the Islanders premier team guided by former N.H. Jr. Monarchs coach Sean Tremblay.

But before that, he would love nothing more than to leave the ultimate mark on Dover Point.

"It would be unbelievable," he said. "Last year was a heartbreaker. We had a really good team. But this year, senior year, it would be great to win a state championship. And I think, with the team we have, we could do it."

Wiswell's done it — the right way.

"What Glenn will find out in the future is that the memories he's made in his four years will outweigh what he's perceived to have given up," said St. Thomas athletic director Ryan Brown. "It's stuff you can't get back. He's going to do his four years in high school and he's still got a great future in hockey."

Mike Zhe is a Herald staff writer. He can be reached at mzhe@seacoastonline.com. Follow him on Twitter at @MikeZhe603.

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